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ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

bmj.com

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Re: ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

#201

Post by DrewADesign »

tstrimple wrote: post #91
DrewADesign wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In addition to confirming and quantifying my more obvious and problematic symptoms, the reaction time tests clearly showed my very mild impulsivity. Nobody I know would call me impulsive, and in the questionnaires I’d have said I wasn’t impulsive, even though I had a sense I was subconsciously resisting that tendency. The tests were too quick for my usual masking reflex, and while I was still ultimately diagnosed wit…

I'm not familiar with the reaction time test. Based on some reading I've done, ADHD is associated with higher variance in reaction time. Despite my ADHD symptoms, I've never thought reaction time was one of them. Quite the opposite really. The hours and hours honing my "skills" in first person shooters puts my reaction time and precision well above human average. But basically the only time I'm testing my reaction sp…

It’s not a simple quantitative reaction time test— they use it to look at various qualitative things based on what you’re reacting to. For example, how often and in what ways you improperly gave anticipatory reactions based ostensible patterns that change without warning. I have no expertise in the matter but I imagine someone with very slow reaction time or particularly bad pattern recognition would make it much more difficult to get reliable results from that test.

Re: ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

#202

Post by [deleted] »

homefree wrote: post #133

My hypothesis about this for a long time has been stimulants help everyone be more productive (with some tradeoffs) and ADHD is kind of a weakly differentiated diagnosis that could apply to most people. Probably something like this was lost when people stopped smoking, obviously beneficial for health - but a huge amount of the public was taking stimulants regularly via nicotine until relatively recently.

[deleted]

Re: ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

#203

Post by dev1ycan »

SubmarineClub wrote: post #82
klipklop wrote: post #77

The irony about getting treatment for ADHD is that medical providers make it very hard to get the proper medication and treatment. People with ADHD are horrible at following through and handle rejection poorly. So the worse the ADHD is, the less likely somebody will be able to actually get treatment for it. A lot of people suffer because doctors fear losing their license like so many did during the pain pill debacle.…

Yeah, it's ridiculous. I've been taking medication for ADHD since the 3rd grade. Why in the good goddamn should I have to go in EVERY month for a refill for a medication I've been taking for over 20 years.

This is why I stopped, when I was starting doing internship at my job I was earning "1000", to go to the psychiatrist to get a prescription it'd cost 250, and the 1 month of pills would cost another 250, half my salary in this bullshit... on top of having to go every month which on itself is a burden.

Nice joke really, even after I started earning more after the internship period ended it was just too annoying so I stopped entirely, instead since it was work from home I literally spent 24/7 trying to finish my work so basically, "working" (if you have adhd you know that while you procrastinate, you aren't actually "relaxed" enough to go play games or whatever so it'd basically still being in work mode mentally) 16 hours a day.

Re: ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

#204

Post by DrewADesign »

gms7777 wrote: post #88
DrewADesign wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In addition to confirming and quantifying my more obvious and problematic symptoms, the reaction time tests clearly showed my very mild impulsivity. Nobody I know would call me impulsive, and in the questionnaires I’d have said I wasn’t impulsive, even though I had a sense I was subconsciously resisting that tendency. The tests were too quick for my usual masking reflex, and while I was still ultimately diagnosed wit…

I think especially as adults (esp. people that managed to get to adulthood without being diagnosed), a lot of people think they don't have certain symptoms, when really they just have developed elaborate systems for managing those symptoms. I never related to "time blindness" because I was always consistently early for things, but really I was just deeply anxious about being on time for things. I would set like 10 al…

Yeah time blindness is my arch nemesis… but it has led to some pretty serious grit and persistence for difficult things under pressure. You need me to start on an arduous, long, difficult task right this second? No problem. You need me to do something on February 23rd 2027 at 4:30am in Anchorage Alaska? Should be fine as long as I’m still using the same calendaring system then. You need me to chip away at a background task steadily for two weeks? I hope you really mean you need me to work on other neat cool things for 13 days, panic, and stay up all night getting it done. (Apparently adrenaline is great for focus, too)

Re: ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

#205

Post by whatevertrevor »

throwpoaster wrote: post #155

Canadian here. ADHD diagnosis is one of the few non-socialized parts of our medical system. Because of the abuse potential they charge a fairly steep fee (cad $3k+, with a $2k+ autism assessment addon) to even attempt diagnosis (after screening by your GP — referral required). The intake paperwork alone was perhaps 100 pages of online questionnaires that lead to interviews where they schedule counselling and evaluati…

Where in Canada?

I had the complete opposite experience last winter in Ontario. I asked my doctor about ADHD, he had me fill two forms, set up an appointment with a psychologist, who after a couple weeks of appointments was ready to prescribe Atomoxetine (at my request since I wanted stimulants only as a last resort).

I paid for nothing in this entire exchange, and the meds are usually covered by an extended drug plan if you have one.

Re: ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

#206

Post by toasted-subs »

The funny thing about this is sex actually does a good job at treating ADHD symptoms. Sad to see most doctors prescribing medication instead of helping kids get laid.

Almost argue most adults are doing the opposite which makes me concerned for the population.

Re: ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

#207

Post by mrexroad »

Spooky23 wrote: post #172
homefree wrote: post #133

My hypothesis about this for a long time has been stimulants help everyone be more productive (with some tradeoffs) and ADHD is kind of a weakly differentiated diagnosis that could apply to most people. Probably something like this was lost when people stopped smoking, obviously beneficial for health - but a huge amount of the public was taking stimulants regularly via nicotine until relatively recently.

That’s a good point on the nicotine. I found out that i have ADHD through a process of dealing with a hearing issue - I have something called auditory processing disorder (APD), which means while I have excellent hearing, my brain has difficulty processing speech in high noise environments, especially with multiple people or frequencies that correlate to women. ADHD and autism spectrum disorders are highly correlated…

Clinically ADHD and suspected APD here. I also have excellent hearing in both ears (20k+ hz), but I’m shit at understanding conversations in noisy environments… especially if my wife is speaking. Her voice is markedly harder for me to process than other people’s when there’s background noise. She used to assume I was being ADHD and not paying attention, etc, and get frustrated, but after years of me visibly focusing on her with unreasonable intensity while listening, she started accepting it. It’s always ironic that my hearing is usually noticeably better than any friends or family (both in frequency range and noticing sounds), but I’m often the only one who can’t fully follow conversations at a restaurant/bar/conference/etc.

Re: ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

#208

Post by falcor84 »

toasted-subs wrote: post #206

The funny thing about this is sex actually does a good job at treating ADHD symptoms. Sad to see most doctors prescribing medication instead of helping kids get laid. Almost argue most adults are doing the opposite which makes me concerned for the population.

That matches my intuition, but has there actually been any proper research on this? I failed to find any now.

Re: ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

#209

Post by quibono »

FollowingTheDao wrote: post #143
edm0nd wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i'm curious, are you homeless because of your psychosis?

Yes, I have schizoaffective disorder, Asperger‘s, and myofacial pain disorder they put me on disability about 22 years ago. I used to be able to handle living in apartments on my disability, but rent has gotten crazy so I ended up living in a van which actually ended up being kind of OK. I have episodic psychosis. It’s not something that happens every day. And I’m seeming to manage it with some genetic and nutritiona…

I hope things get better, all the best to you

Re: ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

#210

Post by yosame »

jasonfarnon wrote: post #189
enneff wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The science doesn’t support your hypothesis btw.

Meaning what? All those college kids who took a friend's ritalin prescription to complete a term paper could have done just as well without it? I'm skeptical. Some of us wouldn't have even done the term paper without it, or would have mailed it in. I tend to think of it as little different than steroids. Maybe there's a bigger boost for some individuals than others, but the boost is probably across the board.

There was a study where they tested the effects of ADHD meds on test performance and perceived performance. It found that stimulants increased perceived performance for everyone, but actual test scores were only improved for people with ADHD.

This is a good overview of the literature: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/1...

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